1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of safety harnesses such as those used by yachtsmen and by crew members of fishing or other commercial vessels. In a more particular sense the invention relates to a novelly designed clip, which is specially formed and designed to interengage, at right angles to each other, a shoulder strap and chestband of a safety harness, with one of the straps carrying a D-ring or equivalent buckle element used to connect the chestband or belt about the wearer's body while permitting connection of a tether thereto.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Safety harnesses of the type including a pair of shoulder straps and a belt extendable about the waist or torso of the user, are very well known. Typically, the shoulder and belt straps of such a harness are adjustable in length to the physique of the particular wearer, as a result of which the several straps are of double thickness, having loops at their ends where they are to be joined together and connected to their associated D-rings.
Connecting the straps together at the location of the D-rings has been achieved in various ways, mostly in a manner that prevents their ready adjustment. It is desirable to provide a floating arrangement in which the D-ring accommodates itself to adjustments in length of both the belt and the shoulder straps, and this has been difficult with the strap arrangements heretofore conceived and now in regular commercial use.
The joining of two individually adjustable, floating webbings or straps in a harness of this type has, thus, presented difficulties. The adjustments are conventionally effected through the provision of an adjustable loop on each strap or webbing, adapted to be extended or shortened, as desired, by means of a selectively positioned buckle element.
As a result, the location at which the webbings or straps intersect may shift with the adjustment, to an undesirable extent, and it is in any event difficult to securely connect the intersecting webbings to each other for maximum comfort and for full efficiency in donning and wearing the harness.